31 August 2023 – Eight awards were presented this Thursday 31 August 2023 during the first PwC Sustainability Awards night. The main theme of this event was “Towards corporate actions and reporting that matters”. Entities from seven key industry sectors of the Mauritian Economy were rewarded for their sustainability programme. Following extensive consultation with the Independent Jury members, an eighth trophy was presented recognising 'The most impactful project'. The event, held at the Caudan Arts Centre, hosted key members of the business community and sustainability teams. Mr Charles H. Cho, Professor of Accounting, Erivan K. Haub Chair in Business & Sustainability, was the keynote speaker, and gave his expert view on the broad aspects of sustainability, and shared some strong insights on what companies should think about when they embark on their journey to sustainability.
The evening awardees are
| Industry | Awardees |
|---|---|
| Transport and Logistics | Velogic Holding Company Limited |
| Agro-Industry | Omnicane Limited |
| Construction and Real-Estate | Ascencia Limited |
| Wholesale and Retail | Lottotech Ltd |
| Manufacturing | CIEL Textile |
| Hospitality and Tourism | Rogers Hospitality |
| Financial Services | Absa Bank (Mauritius) Limited |
| Most Impactful Project | Plastinax Austral Ltd for the RESIGHT project |
From left to right: Mr Nicholas Park (Plastinax Austral Ltd for 'RESIGHT'), Mr Ashvin Chatoorsing (Ascencia Limited), Mr Jacques d'Unienville (Omnicane Limited), Mr Eric Dorchies (Ciel Textile), Mr Vishal Nunkoo (Velogic Holding Company Limited), Mr Thierry Montocchio (Rogers Hospitality), Ms. Virginie Pasnin (Lottotech Ltd), Mr Ravin Dajee (Absa Bank Mauritius Limited)
In his opening speech, Anthony Leung Shing, PwC Mauritius Country Senior partner, talked about how the evolution of corporate reporting has been a journey. PwC Mauritius, over the years, pioneered the Corporate Reporting Awards (CRA) since 1998.
“The CRA has allowed us to deliver the ‘building trust’ aspect of our strategy, The New Equation, through its objective of encouraging the right level of financial, non-financial and governance disclosures. The next frontier for the firm is Sustainability Reporting that will pave the way for a new era in ways of doing business and corporate reporting”, he added, “in line with the second aspect of The New Equation, which is to create sustained outcomes.”
Julien Tyack, PwC Partner and Sustainability Leader, shared PwC’s take on the importance of bridging the gap between corporate reporting and the sustainability agenda, as reporting standards around the world are converging.
“Before even considering the reporting, these standards should first make us ‘think and act better’ about risks and opportunities to make Mauritian entities more sustainable over the longer term”.
Huge opportunities are there: US$ 6 trillion are needed in climate-related investments by the end of this decade and will be mostly needed in emerging markets.
“The awards evaluation process allowed us to assess first-hand the state of sustainability reporting and overall state of the sustainability agenda in the country. Seven key sectors of our economy collectively contributing to ~77% of the Mauritian GDP, were covered”.
As the spokesperson for the Independent Jury panel, Mr Tyack shared that there were quite a few positive takeaways:
- A growing commitment towards sustainability, including some organisations with smaller budgets that have surpassed what could have been expected of them.
- Realisation that the current course of action cannot be reversed, and that significant improvements in terms of reporting and disclosures will be seen in the coming years.
- No need to be big to make a big impact. We came across some fabulous initiatives from a number of small to medium sized companies: these are examples of how to create high societal impact from small investments.
However, there are big gaps to fill as well:
- Sustainability is not sufficiently considered as a strategy. Some organisations appear to see it purely as a compliance cost.
- Projects remain largely piecemeal and scattered, especially for the larger organisations where there is no overarching sustainability ecosystem bringing synergy around capabilities and value creation.
- Many sustainability teams still fall short of what will be required from them to meet expectations. Many organisations have a huge capacity building challenge.
- Insufficient use of new technologies to increase efficiency and generate the right data. For what we are trying to achieve, technology should be our best friend.
Mr Tyack acknowledged that CEOs of today are faced with several challenges from the agenda of Sustainability:
- the Investors want actions on sustainability but are still unwilling to accept lower returns.
- Customers are pushing companies to change but don’t want to give up on convenience and lower prices.
- Finding that right balance between short-term results and meeting longer-term goals is a tough one.
He concluded by sharing a few “tips” to CEOs to tackle the above headwinds.
The PwC Sustainability Awards is a new initiative as part of a broader objective to drive corporate behaviours around Sustainability and push for better reporting, using internationally recognised metrics that go beyond financial information and governance disclosures.
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